This invention is related to magnetic pick-up devices for vacuum sweepers, and more particularly to a pick-up device having an elongated housing that is mounted on the front of a vacuum sweeper and releasably connected to the vacuum sweeper housing by a cooperating pair of extruded sections, one of which has a slot for receiving a lip on the other section.
Vacuum sweepers, especially in commercial applications, frequently experience the problem of picking up small metallic objects which enter the machine and have a detrimental effect on its internal components. Some devices are known in the prior art in which a magnetic material is mounted on the front of the vacuum sweeper housing, forward of the vacuum sweeper housing as it is being pushed in a cleaning motion, to pick up the magnetic metal objects before they enter the vacuum sweeper housing. Such products have not received a wide commercial acceptance for a variety of reasons. For example, one such device is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,512 which issued Feb. 8, 1977 to Saul S. Saulson. The Saulson device has a magnet mounted to function as a bumper, that is, on the forward side of the pick-up device frame. In order to remove the pick-up device from the vacuum sweeper, the user must use a tool to unfasten a pair of bolts, a time-consuming activity.